Trump drops conspiracy-laden motion in Mar-a-Lago case that could backfire

Bruce R. Bennett | The Palm Beach Post

On Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys filed a 68-page motion in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, seeking to compel the Special Counsel’s office to turn over reams of additional discovery, despite complaining in previous filings that the amount of discovery already received is overwhelming.

The filing itself was notable for its hints at the arguments the defense is crafting – a predictable mix of conspiracy theories and victimhood. 

The introduction reads like an extended Truth Social rant, complaining that “the Special Counsel’s Office has disregarded basic discovery obligations and DOJ policies in an effort to support the Biden Administration’s egregious efforts to weaponize the criminal justice system in pursuit of an objective that President Biden cannot achieve on the campaign trail: slowing down President Trump’s leading campaign in the 2024 presidential election.” 

There are jabs at having to prepare the document “while working toward a historic landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses” and pleas that the Trump-appointed Judge realize that “discovery violations…have marred this case from the outset and illustrate that the [Special Counsel’s] Office has disregarded fundamental fairness and its legal obligations in favor of partisan election interference.” Jack Smith’s team have repeatedly noted in their own filings that they have exceeded their discovery obligations in this case, even disclosing certain Jencks Act material, such as witness statements and transcripts, which is ordinarily only required to be turned over once said witness has testified on direct examination.

As in the election interference case in the District of Columbia, the defense is seeking to expand the definition of the “prosecution team”, to include numerous intelligence agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and “members, relatives, or associates of the Biden Administration.” This would allow them to obtain thousands of extra pages of discovery, including Biden Administration communications, on a hunt for evidence of partisan animus within NARA and the intelligence community, who they accuse of operating with a bias against the former president dating back to “at least 2019”, when Trump’s first impeachment was gathering steam.

One thread of an argument, among the many contained in the document, is a claim that Trump still had a security clearance between 2021 and 2023, although this seems immaterial when holding a clearance doesn’t permit you to steal the information you have access to. The defense also argues that Mar-a-Lago is a secure environment, therefore any material kept there was safe – which ignores the images we’ve all seen of dozens of boxes stored on the stage in a ballroom. 

Trump has filed a very similar document in the D.C. case, which Judge Chutkhan has yet to rule on because of the ongoing stay in proceedings. In response to a separate request from the defense to subpoena individuals related to the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Judge Chutkhan denied the motion, calling it an inappropriate “fishing expedition”. But with Judge Cannon overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents case, anything is possible.

Should the Judge grant even some of their requests, receipt of extensive additional discovery makes the May trial date ever more unlikely, as Trump’s team will then ask for extra time to review any new material in the hopes of pushing the trial out past the November presidential election.

On the face of it, that looks bad. However, given the former president’s trial calendar this year, it may be a blessing in disguise. This week, Judge Chutkhan indicated in an opinion and order that the March 4 start date of the D.C. case was all but lost, given the time it’s taken to deal with Trump’s claims of absolute presidential immunity - and that fight’s not even over yet. Should May suddenly become free, that early summer period might be a plausible timescale for the election interference case to go to trial in Washington, freeing up March for Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against the former president in New York.